According to the story published in The Oregonian a few days ago, "IFC senior vice president of original programming Debbie DeMontreux said "Portlandia" was inspired by the pair’s Web series, "Thunderant." Executives wanted something more than random sketches, and creating the world of Portlandia pulls the sketches together."

She continues:

"It’s
the fact that Carrie is from Portland and that it’s such an
uber-liberal community, very crunchy," DeMontreux said, explaining the
reason for the Portland setting. "A lot of the characters and sketches
are based on the world of Portland. The characters are very crisp in
this world and it’s just a cool, unique, fresh take on sketch comedy."

Portland's become a very cool place to live during the past decade or more, celebrated for its progressive values, restaurants, arts scene, devotion to cycling and recycling, and brewing beer and roasting coffee beans. Everyone's writing about us and everyone wants to move here, so it seems.

Dundeesage, a commenter to the story, written by Rob Owen, had this to say:

"Monty Python in their wildest schemes couldn't do justice to Portland's more routine operations."

Has the celebration of Portland and all things Portland peaked to the point of parody?